Been flying? Been up lately? Unless we are burning up the airways, most of us tend to answer these questions with studied vagueness — "A little, here and there" or "always looking for the $100 hamburger" are casual code words that betray our relative inactivity. None of us wants to admit to our buddies at the airport that we aren't flying much; to do so would subject us to pity or ridicule.

Except for those unforgivable mental lapses when we've left the Colombian coffee behind, most of the contrails that I've had a hand in making have been, I'll admit, monotonously straight. No daydreaming child ever conjured up a puppy dog or favorite cartoon character looking at one of mine.

Most pilots don't think too much about using portable oxygen. Sure, everyone knows that you have to use supplemental oxygen if you fly more than 30 minutes at cabin pressure altitudes of 12,500 feet or higher.

According to the DUATS flight planner, the distance from Boulder, Colorado, to Memphis is 779 nautical miles — a bit of a stretch for my Cessna 185 Skywagon; without help from the wind gods, we would need a stop somewhere between central Kansas and northwest Arkansas to replenish the fuel tanks. On the morning of the flight, with high ceilings and excellent visibility, I decided to go VFR.

It has often been said that, with the exception of the nuclear power industry, aviation is the most regulated activity in the country. In many ways we must fit our operations around, beside, and on top of the restraints that the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) place upon us.

"Thanks for the memory ..." Who could ever forget that song that old What's-her-name used to sing: "Memories, like the BLAH blah blah blah blah ... misty BLAH blah blah BLAH memories—of the blah blah blah." Well, you know how it goes.

A Nashville couple uses airline techniques in their airplane To err is human, and therein lies the problem. Flight-crew error remains the leading cause of commercial aircraft accidents, and cockpit resource management is the training technique airlines use to help prevent humans from being, well, quite so human.

In 1936, airline flights were not allowed to fly along any route (over water or land) unless suitable airports were available at no more than 100-mile intervals. This limitation eventually evolved into Federal Aviation Regulation 121.161, which prohibits operating an airline flight along any route that is more than one hour (in still air at normal cruising speed with one engine inoperative) from a suitable airport unless the airplane has at least four piston engines or three turbine engines.

Friends didn't say, "See ya later" when I left for inverted flat spin training in Chandler, Arizona. They said, simply, "Goodbye." The editor sensed a liability problem and emphasized that this was not an official assignment.

To those who have been flying long enough, the GPS revolution of the 1990s is reminiscent of the VOR revolution of the 1950s. This is when "omniranges" began to replace obsolescent four-course radio ranges, which had been the backbone of the federal airway system since the late 1920s.

Senior prom night was nearly over, and Dad had promised a special treat: a flight to Atlantic City. Five dressed-up kids in a six-passenger twin, and just enough fuel to be legal and safe, brought the aircraft right up to maximum gross weight.

Managing missing-mill mayhem With all the benefits multi-engine flying has to offer, there is one major caveat — what happens when an engine quits? To a quick-thinking, well-trained pilot flying an airplane within its limits, probably nothing. To a complacent pilot flying an overloaded twin, possibly disaster.

Piston aircraft engines lead hard lives. Unlike an automotive engine that loafs along, producing some five percent of its total horsepower at highway speeds, the aircraft engine spends most of its life generating more than 65 percent of its rated power.

Of all the old wives' tales and conflicting reports that pilots hear about how to operate their airplanes, one common bit of advice prevails — a thorough preheat can go a long way to protect engine and instruments from damage and premature replacement. Consider your engine the morning after a night in subzero temperatures.

Help fight wide patternitis Ever start to turn a left base at an uncontrolled airport and see another aircraft barreling in from the right on a base of its own? Unknown to you, the offending pilot had been lurking out there all along, flying a downwind leg that was two miles or more from the airport. Or have you followed an aircraft on downwind that passes abeam the approach end, then travels a mile or more before turning base? All of the trailing aircraft are forced to follow along on this mini-cross-country flight.

Float flying in gator land This is Day One of a three-day floatplane course taught by Florida Seaplanes of Sanford, Florida, located halfway between Orlando and Daytona. The checkride is scheduled in three days, but right now I am more worried about falling into Lake Monroe.

Welcome to Idaho — land of pilots A moose on the runway and a herd of elk on the approach end require a clearing pass before landing on Runway 25 of the United States Forestry Service's (USFS) Chamberlain airstrip. The gray and white Cessna 182 continues to roll to the very end of the rougher-than-a-cob 3,000-foot turf strip.

The icemen flyeth As the icy winter weather tightens its grip on the northern part of the United States, many pilots are tempted to close their hangars and retreat indoors until spring. Bone-chilling arctic winds whip through metal hangars, frost and icicles coat airplanes that are kept outside, and flight operations are often complicated by bitterly cold temperatures, harsh winter storm systems, and snow or ice-covered runways.

Starry night, scary night Gremlin — A small gnome held to be responsible for malfunction of equipment especially in aircraft. — Webster's Dictionary October brings more than frosty weather and Halloween: The clock falls back an hour in most states, producing instant night for pilots accustomed to late summer evening flights.

A new aviation era began February 17, the day the Federal Aviation Administration declared the Global Positioning System operational and granted technical standard order approval to the Garmin 155 GPS receiver. The decree came with little fanfare, yet it will affect how we fly for decades to come.

Nobody likes to contemplate a botched approach, a go-around because of traffic, or a missed approach because of weather or lousy flying. It doesn't happen often, either, so we don't think about it a lot and seldom practice the act.

Flying along, watching the Stormscope and radar and adjusting the heading to try to minimize the challenges of the day, I thought for a minute about how nice it is to have so much information on weather. As my mind wandered, so did the heading — about 10 degrees.

Every pilot needs VFR recurrent training. In fact, pilots who profess to fly IFR "all the time" are as much or more in need of a good VFR workout as pilots who don't fly a lot, but who do all their flying VFR.